This is a trip down memory lane. How did you tell your children they were going to Disney for the first time? Did they open a card, have a box with Mickey holding tickets? Did you completely surprise them and just show up? Im going to hand craft a card that will show her where she is going, since she can only read her name and small words. And then put inside a box with clues. It seems a lil much but Ive got 5 months to do it.:mickey:

The first time we took our DD to WDW she was only 1 1/2 years old, so I don’t think she understood when we told her we were going to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse. We stayed at the Contemporary. She was so excited about the hotel, pools, the grounds, play areas and riding the escalator. When we told her we were going to the park, she didn’t want to leave the hotel. It took us 30 minutes to convience her that there were other fun things to do if we left the hotel.

The first time we went we woke up our son (it was 04:30 AM because we have a 2 hour drive to the airport), & literally said “Get up! We are going to Disney World!” He thought he was dreaming at first & tried to go back to sleep.:biggrin: Then we told him again & he said “that’s not a very funny joke you know!” It was so funny to hear that coming from a 6 year old!! After we finally convinced him that he did really need to get up so we could go, he said “So that means I get to miss school?” It was so cute. We had a hard time keeping him calm for the drive down to the airport.:mickey:

[QUOTE=nancyk;1057393]The first time we went we woke up our son (it was 04:30 AM because we have a 2 hour drive to the airport), & literally said “Get up! We are going to Disney World!” He thought he was dreaming at first & tried to go back to sleep.:biggrin: Then we told him again & he said “that’s not a very funny joke you know!” It was so funny to hear that coming from a 6 year old!! After we finally convinced him that he did really need to get up so we could go, he said “So that means I get to miss school?” It was so cute. We had a hard time keeping him calm for the drive down to the airport.:mickey:[/QUOTE]

That’s exactly how we did it. Errr…not exactly. We woke the boys up at 4:30 and told them it was time to get up for school. Oh it was a grump, tired morning at our house that day. We packed them into the car and were off to “school”. They caught on pretty quickly that we were heading to the airport but never knew where they would fly to until much later…

Mickey has sent them notes at our house to some to see him at WDW, with a stuffed animal. Santa has sent them a note telling them they were going later, we have just driven down there and shown up (that was the first time). She was so excited!!!

DD7’s first time she knew we were going but we have a friend who works for one at one of the resorts & we sent her a ‘letter from cinderella’ and she sent it back to DD so it had the florida postmark on it. It said how Cinderella and mickey were excited to see her soon! DD loved it!!

I don’t have kids of my own, so I’ll tell you how my parents told me. Mom always worked it out to tell us on a birthday or Christmas. She would send us on a scavenger hunt and at the end we’d find either the tickets, a guide book, a picture, etc. Something to tell us where we were going.

The first time, we were riding home from my sisters house on Christmas Day, and we did the thing where Mickey calls and tells you someone got you a trip to Disney World for Christmas. I put it on speaker phone for them to hear. We didn’t actually go for a few months.
The second time, they woke up in the our hotel’s parking lot the day after Christmas. They had no idea that is where we were ending up.

I made a gift bag for DS that had an autograph book that I had made him, some Cars notebooks and pencils and activities for the trip down, and a countdown chain. We explained that we really were going, but Dad couldn’t go because he couldn’t get time off since he had just started a new job. He called and asked my mom to join us and meet us there. Of course, we had already planned out that she would meet us…but he didn’t know that. I think he was shocked at first, but got excited quickly!

We surprised DD on one trip by making a tshirt that said “Surprise Jillian we’re going to Disney World!” We were also going to the Pirate and Princess party so I make a scroll from Minnie inviting her to the party. I sent her in the spare room the morning we were leaving and had her read it. It was fun surprising her and then we were all surprised b/c that was the trip when we stayed in Cinderella’s Castle!! :wub:

The first time for my oldest DD she was only 6 months old so that doesn’t count but the second time for her(3 years old) and first for my oldest DS(he was 1 ) we literally woke them up and we drove to the airport and they didn’t know until we drove our rental car past the Maingate. It was a Disney moment for sure.

[QUOTE=christina101902;1057390]This is a trip down memory lane. How did you tell your children they were going to Disney for the first time? Did they open a card, have a box with Mickey holding tickets? Did you completely surprise them and just show up? Im going to hand craft a card that will show her where she is going, since she can only read her name and small words. And then put inside a box with clues. It seems a lil much but Ive got 5 months to do it.:mickey:

Christina[/QUOTE]

We just took our 3 yrd old (for his b-day) and our 1 1/5 yr old for the first time last month. I typed up a letter from Mickey and mailed it to my son. He was so excited when we went to the mailbox and said someone sent him a letter. When we said it was from Mickey Mouse he was freaking out (in a good way). Then we sat down on the couch together and read him the letter.

we took rose for her second birthday. she had no clue what disney world was. so we just showed up. OMG let me tell you just the smile on her face when we rode the parking lot tram!!! and then just the “holy crud what is this place???” look when we first walked in and pluto and chip and dale were there. i’m tearing up just thinking about it!!!

We were planning on having “Mickey” visit for DD1’s fourth birthday in January BUT we might not be here in January to do it. We aren’t sure when we are moving back to the states so we might or might not be taking the trip when we originally planned (we were suppose to be out in Japan for another 2+ years but it looks like they might be sending us back as early as March/April depending on when we can get the passport for the munchkin due in Feb)… So, we have to wait.

Previous trips they were really to young to understand. Last one DD1 was 2 1/2 and DD2 was 11 months, trip before that I was pregnant with DD2 and DD1 was 15 months.

The last trip, they knew we had a surprise for then and when they were good they got a piece of a puzzle that had a clue on it once it was all put together that said look in your back packs. We had replaced their school backpacks with carryone backpacks and filled then with word searches, journals and such and a clue that said follow the notes at the end of the strigs, which lead us to my mom and dad’s house (because it was our first trip and they wanted to see their faces). Then the last note they found told them. They acted surprised but didn’t really seem excited. Then I found out that when I was a work one dad their father was yelling at they and said “you to better behave or your not going to Disney!” Then relized what he had done and told them to act surprised of course my DD who was 7 and the time and can’t keep anything from me tells me minutes after acting surprised!!! All that work for nothing.

We have a huve christmas morning scavanger hunt planned for this year. The house is getting “grinched”, my grandparents are going to come redecorate while we are at my mom’s for breakfast. The kids have to find clues and decoded the message which the code for is in the Kingdom’s keepers 3 book. The clues basically says that their presents are at home under the tree. We got them luggage, and Hamm piggy banks with US money in them. Then we have paper airplanes that say that they are flying not driving down. I also photochoped a Disney promotional postcard that was sent to us that now says we will see you in August.
Since the trip is so far off I made a count down box that has a surprise side, task side and a ? side. Giving the kids something to look forward to on a weekly bases. And of course a count down calander!!!